Observations on the chalchihuitl of Mexico and Central America

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OBSERVATION'S

A COLLECTION OF

CHALCHIHUITLS

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

OBSEEVATIONS

CHALCHIHUITL

^

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

tFELLOW OF THE AJSTTIQUABIAN SOCIETY OF J.ONDON ; THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP AKTIQUAEIES

OF DENMABK; THE ANTHROPOLO&KUL SOCIETIES OF LONDON AND PARIS, ETC.

E. G. SQUIEE^-J^A.

EXTRACT FBOM THE ANNALS OE THE LYCEUM OE NATURAL HISTORY OFNEW YORK.

NEW TOEK;

1869.

f,^'"^

%

Among the articles of ornament used by the aboriginal

inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, those worked

from some variety of green stone resembling emerald, and

called by the Kahnatl or Mexican name chalchiuitl, chalohi-

huitl^ or chalchiuite^ were most highly esteemed, and are

oftenest mentioned by the early explorers and chroniclers.

The word chalchiuitl is defined by Molina, in his Vooabulario

Mexicano (1571), to signify esmeralda haja^ or an inferior kind

of emerald. The precious emerald, or emerald proper, was

called quetzalitztli, from the quetzal, the bird known to science

as the trogan resplendens (the splendid plumes of which, of bril-

liant metallic green, were worn by the kings of Mexico and

Central America as regal insignia), and itzli, stone ; i. e. the

stone of the quetzal.

The value attached to the chalcMhuitl by the ancient Mexi-

cans will appear from the testimony of the chronicler Bernal

Diaz, which is supported by that of all the historians of the

Discovery and Conquest. The first messengers that Monte-

zuma sent to Cortez, on his landing at San Juan de Ulua,

brought, among other presents, " four cJialchihuitls, a species

of green stone of uncommon value, which is held in higher

estimation with them than the smaragdusr (Lockhart's

Translation of Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 93.) Subsequently, after

having firmly established himself in Mexico, Cortez required

of the Emperor Montezuma that he should collect tribute from

* I have followed the orthography of the -word throughout, as given by the

various authors quoted.

4 Observations on a Collection of

all his vassals for the Spanish crown, which he proceeded at

once to do ; and, at the end of twenty days, handed over to

Cortez all the treasures he had got together, amounting in value

to QQO.000 pesos. Bernal Diaz reports that Montezuma apolo-

gized for the smallness of the amount, on the score that his

time for collecting the tribute had been too short ; but that he

would make it worthy of the acceptance of the Spanish king

by adding to it the treasures of his father, and also " a few

chalchihuis of such enormous value that I would not consent

to give them to any one save such a powerful emperor as

yours ; each of these stones is worth two loads of gold." (7J,,

vol. i. p. 278.)

Sahagun mentions four of the Mexican gods who were the

especial patrons of the lapidaries, and honored as the inven-

tors of the art " of working stones and chalchiuites, and of

drilling and polishing them." He does not, however, describe

the process made use of by the Indians in cutting precious

stones, " because," he says, " it is so common and well under-

stood ; " an omission which his editor, Bustamente, regrets,

" since the art is now entirely lost."

Quetzalcoatl^ the lawgiver, high-priest, and instructor of the

Mexicans in the arts, is said to have taught not only the M'ork-

ing of metals, but " particularly the art of cutting precious

stones, such as chalchiuites^ whicli are green stones, much

esteemed, and of great value." {Torquemaday lib. vi. cap.

xxiv.) Quetzalcoatl himself, according to certain traditions,

was begotten by one of these stones, which the goddess Chi-

malma had placed in her bosom. Indeed, both among the

Mexicans and the nations ftirtlier to the southward, the chalchi-

hnitl seems to have represented everything that was excellent

in its kind. Its name was used in compounding designations of

distinction and honor, and was applied both to heroes and

divinities. Tlie goddess of water bore the name of Chal-

chiuith'uye, the woman of the chalchiuites ,' and the name of

Chaichiuhajxiti was often applied to the city of Tlaxcalla, from

ChalGhihuitls from Central America. 5

a beautiful fountain of water near it, the color of which, accord-

ing to Torquemada, " was between blue and green." Oortez,

according to the same authority, was often called " Chal-

chniitl, which is the same as captain of great valor, because

chalchiuitl is the color of emerald, and the emeralds are held

in high estimation among the nations." {Monarchia Indiana,

vol. i. p. 435.) When a great dignitary died, his corpse was

richly decorated for burial with gold and plumes of feathers,

and " they put in his mouth a fine stone resembling emerald,

which they call chalchihidtl, and which, they say, they place

as a heart." (/Z>., vol. ii. p. 521.)

Sahagun, in one place, describes the chalchihuitl as " a jas-

per of very green color, or a common emerald." Elsewhere

he goes into a very full description of the various kinds of

green stones which the Mexicans held in esteem, and as MkS

account may materially aid in identifjang the chalchihuitl, it

is subjoined entire :

" The emerald which the Mexicans call quetzalitztli is pre-

cious, of great value, and is so called, because by the word

quetzalli they mean to say a very green plume, and by itztli,

flint. It is smooth, without spot ; and these peculiarities

belong to the good emerald ; namely, it is deep green with a

polished surface, without stain, transparent, and at the same

time lustrous. There is another kind of stone which is called

quetzalchalchwitl^'&o called because it is very green and resem-

bles the chalchimtl ; the best of these are of deep green, trans-

parent, and without spot ; those which are of inferior quality

have veins and spots intermingled. The Mexicans work these

stones into various shapes; some are round and pierced, others

long, cylindrical, and pierced ; others triangular, hexagonal,

or square. There are still other stones called chalchivites,

which are green (but not transparent), mixed with white

;

they are much used by the chiefs, who wear them fastened to

their wrists by cords, as a sign of rank. The lower orders

{maceguales) are not allowed to wear them. . . . There

6 Ohsei'vations on a Collection of

is yet another stone called tlilaiotic, a kind of chalchuite, in

color black and green mixed. . . . And among the jaspers

is a variety in color white mixed with green, and for this reason

called iztacchalchiuitl* Another variety has veins of clear

o-reen or blue, with other colors interspersed with the white.

. And there is yet another kind of green stone which

resembles the chalchiuities, and called xoxouhquitecpatl.-f It

is known to the lapidaries as tecelic, for ihe reason that it is

very easy to work, and has spots of clear blue. The wrought

and curious stones which the natives wear attached to their

wrists, whether of crystal or other precious stones, they call

chopilotl—a designation that is given to any stone curiously

worked or very beautiful." {Historia de JS'ueva Espaha^ lib.

xi. cap. viii.) The same author, describing the ornaments

which the Mexican lords used in their festivals, speaks of a

" head-dress called quetsalaljpitoai., consisting of two tassels of

rich plumes, set in gold, and worn suspended from the hair at

the crown of the head, and hanging down on each side towards

the shoulders. They also wear rings of gold around the arms

and in their ears, and round their wrists a broad band of

black leather, and suspended to this a large bead of chal-

chiuitl or other precious stone. They also wear a chin orna-

ment (barhote) of chalchiuitl set in gold, fixed in the beard.

Some of these harhotes are large crystals, with blue feathers

put in them, which give them the appearance of sapphires.

There are many other varieties of precious stones which they

use for harhotes. They have their lower lips slit, and wear

these ornaments in the openings, where they appear as if com-

ing out of the fiesh ; and they wear in the same way semi-

lunes of gold. The noses of the great lords are also pierced,

and in the openings they wear fine turquoises or other pre-

cious stones, one on each side. They wear strings of precious

* hiac signifies white ; i. e. white-chalrhihuitl.

•J-From xoxouhqui, cosa verde, something green, and tecpail, sUyne ; i.e. green-

stone.

Chalchihuitls from Central America. 7

stones around their necks, sustaining a gold medal set round

with pearls, and having in its centre a smooth precious stone."

(/&., lib, viii. cap. ix.)

And here, as confirming the definition of chalGhihuitl as given

by Molina, I quote the exact words of Montolina, in his letter

of 1555, to which Senor Icazbalceta has given the first place in

his " Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de Mexico." I

quote from page 189, on which, enumerating the riches of

Mexico, he says :" Hay mucho oro y plata, y todos los metales

y piedras, en especial turquesos, y otras que aca se dicen chal-

chiuitl ; las finas de estas son esmeraldas.^^

The chronicler Fuentes, in his unpublished history of the

old kingdom of Guatemala, speaks of the Indians of Quiche as

wearing " head-dresses of rich feathers and brilliant stones,

chalohiguites, which were very large and of great weight, un-

der which they danced without wearying." The Licenciado

Palacio, in his account of the Pipil Indians of San Salvador,

also makes mention of these stones, which were worn on the

wrists and ankles, and also supposed, like the hezoar stone, to

be a specific against certain diseases. {Carta al Hey de JEs-

jpana^ Squier's " Coleccion de Documentos Originates^ e^c," vol.

In these descriptions, it will be seen that the chalchihuitls

are spoken of as ornaments, round or oblong beads, which

conforms with the representations in the paintings. But these

or similar green stones were used for other jjurposes. The

chronicler Yillagutierre, in his account of the conquest of the

Itzaes of Yucatan, speaks of idols in their temples " of precious

jasper, green, red, and of other colors;" and, in describing

the great temple of Tayasal, mentions particularly an idol

which was found in it, " a span long, of rough emerald {es-

meralda hrutd)., which the infidels called the god of Battles,"

and which the conquering general, Ursua, took as part of his

share of the spoil.

It appears that when the Spaniards first landed in Tabasco,

8 Observations on a CoUtciion of

they mistook some of these chalGhihuitles for true emeralds ; at

any rate the Indians were eager to obtain the glass beads of the

Spaniards, not knowing them to be artificial. If, however, the

Spaniards really fell into any mistake as to these stones, they

were not long in finding it out, as appears from an anecdote re-

lated, by Torquemada, describing how Don Pedro Alvarado

often played with Montezuma at a game called hodoque, in

which, while the latter paid his losses in gold, the former paid

his in chalchiuites, " que son piedras entre los Indios estimada,

y entre los Castellanos, no," {Mon. Ind., vol. i. p. J:62.)

The Mexicans nevertheless had true emeralds, of which we

have left to us the most glowing desciuptions. Gomara de-

scribes particularly five large ones which Cortez took with him

from Mexico to Spain at the time of his first visit, and which

were regarded as among the finest in the world. They were

valued at 100,000 ducats, and for one of them the Genoese

merchants offered 40,000 ducats, with the view of selling it to

the Grand Turk. Cortez had also the emerald vases, which

the padre Mariana assures us, in the supplement of his History

of Spain, were worth 300,000 ducats. They are reported to

have been lost at sea. All these emeralds were cut in Mexico

bv Indian lapidaries under the orders of Cortez, and were most

elaborately worked. One was wrought in the form of a little

bell, with a fine pearl for a clapper, and had on its lip this

inscription in Spanish, Bendito quien te criS ! Blessed he who

made thee ! The one valued most highly was in the shape of

a cup, with a foot of gold. All of them were presented by

Cortez to his second wife, who thus, says Gonuira, became

possessed of finer jewels than any other woman in Spain.

Remarkable as were these emeralds, Peter Martyr mentions

one, of which Cortez was robbed by the French pirates, that

must have surpassed any of them in size and value. " But

what shall wee speake of lewellcs and precious stones ? Omit-

tin"' the rest, tiiere was an Emerode like a Pyramis^ the lowest

part or bottome whereof was almost as broad as the palme of


a mans liande, such a one (as was reported to Ccesar, and to iis

in the Kinges Senate) as never any human Eye behelde. The

French Admirall is said to have gotten it of the Pyrattes at

an incredible price." {Decade viii, c. 4.)

Coming down to later times, we find Prof. P. Blake, in the

American Journal of Science and Arts for March, 1858, in an

interesting article on " The Chalchihuitil of the Mexicans," in-

forming us that the Navajo Indians in the northern and western

portions of iJ^ew Mexico wear small ornaments and trinkets of

a hard, green stone, which they call by the Mexican name, and

which they regard as of great value ;" a string of fragments

large enough for an ear-ring being worth as much as a mule."

Mr. Blake, suspecting this stone to be turquoise, and learning

that it was yet procured in small quantity b}' the Indians

among the mountains about twenty miles from Santa Fe,

visited the spot, where he found an immense pit excavated in

granular porphyry, " 200 feet in depth and 300 or more in

width," besides some smaller excavations. He obtained manyfragments of the so-called chalGhihuitil " of apple-green and

peagreen, passing into bluish-green, capable of a fine polish,

and of a hardness little less than that of feldspar." The frag-

ments found were small, not exceeding three-quarters of an

inch in length and one-quarter of an inch in thickness, and

the material " appeared to have formed crusts upon the sur-

faces of cavities or fissures in the rock, or to have extended

through it in veins."

Mr. Blake's description applies to the specimens exhibited

to the Lyceum not long ago by Prof. JSTewberry, and there is

no doubt that the material was, or rather is, a variety of the

turquoise. But I doubt if it be the true Ghalohihuitl of the

Mexicans and Central Americans. That they used the stone

described by Mr. Blake for certain purposes, I know ; for there

exists in the museum of the late Mr. Henry Christy, in Lon-

don, a human skull completely encrusted with a mosaic of

precisely this stone, and a flint knife with its handle elaborately

10 Ohservatioiis on a Collection of

inlaid with it, in small fragments. Of the first of these relics

I present a drawing made by Waldeck and published by the

Fi'encli Government. See Fig. 1.*

Fig. 1.

Human Skull, Ancient Mexican, inlaid with turquoise and obsidian.

The weight of evidence, in my opinion, goes to show that

the stone properly called chalchihuitl is that which Molina

defines to be ^^haja esmeralda,^^ or possibly nephrite, "a jas-

per of very green color," as Sahagun, already quoted, avers.

I should therefore object, on strictly critical and historical

grounds, to the suggestion of Mr. Blake, that the variety of

turquoise found by him should be " known among mineralo-

gists as chalchihuitl.^^

* In Mr. Christy's museum is also a wooden mask encrusted in like manner,

with turquoises, malachite, and white and red sliells. The predominant stone

in all is the turquoise. The back of the skull in the specimen engraved is cut

away, so as to admit the face to be hung by leathern thongs (which still remain)

over the face of an idol, as was the custom in Mexico. The transverse black

bauds in the cut are of obsidian in the original. The eyeballs are nodules of iron

pyrites, cut hemispherically, and highly polished.


But apart from any speculations on the subject, I have to

lay before the Lyceum a most interesting series of green stones,

unrivalled, in their way, in the world, which were found

among the ruins of Ocosingo, in the department of Quesalte-

nango, Guatemala, on the borders of Chiapas, and not remote

from the more famous but hardly less imposing monuments of

Palenque. I must not omit to say that, in common M'ith simi-

lar stones, they were designated by the people of the region

where they were found as chalchichuites.

Fig. 2.—The first and most interesting of these is precisely

n

f Fig. 2.

Chalchihuitl, or engraved precious stone, from Ocosingo, Central America. Full size.

four inches long by two and three-tenths broad, and about half

an inch in average thickness. The face is sculptured in low re-

12 OlfservaUons on a Collection of

lief, with the tigure of a divinity seated, cross-legged, on a kind

of carved seat, with his left hand resting on his thigh, and his

right raised to his breast, as if in the act of giving benediction.

Around ]iis loins is an ornamental girdle, and depending from

his neck and resting on his breast is an oblong rectangular plate

or charm, not unlike that said to have been worn by tlie Jewish

high-priests. The face is in profile, showing the salient nose and

Fio. 8.

B^sso-Iterievo of the gud Cuoulcan, from Palenque.

conventional receding forehead that cliaracterize most Central

American sculptures. Ornaments arc inserted in the lobes of

the ears, and the head is surmounted with the characteristic and

elaborate plumed head dress that we observe on the Palenque

monuments and in the paintings. The whole is almost an exact


miniature copy of the large las-relief found by Mr. Stephens

in an inner chamber of one of the ruined structures of Palenque

(Fig. 3). At about one-third of the length of the carved chalchi-

liuitl, measuring from the top, it is drilled through from edge to

edge, the hole being a little less than two-tenths of an inch in

diameter ; the drilling having been made from each side to the

centre, where the two drillings run one into the other, with a

slightly diminished bore. The purpose of this seems to have

been to suspend the object from the neck or other part of the

person ; but the back edges of the plate are also pierced

diagonally, as if to afford means of fastening it to cloth or other

material, without those means showing in front.

Fig. 4.—The next relic in importance is of a similar but

Fig. 4.

Chalchihuitl from Ocosingo. Two-thirds actual size.

more opaque material, which, were it not for a strij) of clear

quartz on one edge, might be mistaken for enamel. It is a

semi-disk in shape, four and a half inches in length by two

and seven-tenths in greatest width. It shows a human face in

full front, surmounted by a kind of heraldic shield, and sur-

rounded by a profusion of feather ornaments, with huge

ear-rings and other ornaments below the chin. It, too, is

pierced near its upper edge, longitudinally from side to side.

The back shows that it was sawn from a solid block of the

same material, both from above and below, until the cuttings


reached each other within half an inch, when tlie intermediate

core, if I may so call it, was broken off. The swerve of the

saw is distinctly visible from the top as well as the bottom,

although the stance are nearly polished out. This was clearly

intended to be suspended, as there are no means by which to

fasten it to robes of any kind. It must have served as a gorget

or breast-plate.

Fig. 5.—This is a most interesting, although a very irregular,

Fm. 5.

Chalchihuitl from Ocosiiigo. Two-thirds actual size.

and comparatively rude specimen, four inches and two-tenths

long by two and a half inches wide at its widest part. The

back shows a compact greenish stone, with the same evidences

of having been sawn from a solid block, to which I have al-

luded in describing Fig. 4. Tlie front appears as if of a bril-

liant green enamel, exhibiting a full human face with a large

and elaborate feather helmet or crown, huge ear and neck

ornaments impossible to describe, and only to be understood

V>y inspection of the original. This, too, is pierced, like that

last described, from edge to edge, near its upper end.


Fig. 6.—^This is a comparatively small fragment of identical

material with Fig, 2, an irregular triangle in shape, somewhat

concave on the face, where is carved in profile a human head,

surmounted also with elaborate plumes, but with eyes closed

Fig. 6.

Chalchihuitl from Ocosingo. Full size.

as if in death. This is drilled through vertically and horizon-

tally, and there are small diagonal holes, designed to afford

means of attachment by threads to some portion of the dress

of the wearer. It is polished back and face, and measures

two and three-tenths inches by one and nine-tenths. It has

its almost exact counterpart in the Christy, formerly Mayer

Museum, of London.

Fig. 7:—This specimen is peculiar and very interesting. It

is a slightly irregular globe, two and six-tenths inches in diam-

eter, pierced from top to bottom by a perfectly circular hole

one and three-tenths of an inch in diameter. On three sides,

if I may use the expression in respect of a sphere, are as manyengraved hieroglyphics, using that term in the popular sense,

but which I conceive to be syllabo-phonetic or phono-syllabic


signs, of which, of course, only engravings can give any ade-

quate notion. (Figs. 8, 9, 10.) As I shall have something

Fig. 7.

Chalchihuitl globe, pierced. One-fourt size.

to say about this specimen further on, I proceed to notice a

simple polished perfect globe, of the same material with that

Figs. 8, 9, 10.

•' Hieroglyphics " on Chalchihuitl globe. Full size.

last alluded to, and which may be sufficiently described as a

large bead, an inch and a tenth in diameter, pierced through

its exact centre by a hole sufficiently large to admit a stout

thread.

Fios. 11, 12.

Chalchihuitl orniiinentA. H.ilf size.

Figs. 11 and 12 are types of a large class of what may be

cJiUed chalchihuitl ornaments, with no special significance.


Figs. 13 and 14, however, may have a hieroglyphical signifi-

cance. The latter (Fig. 14) is a fragment of a thin plate, of the

Figs. 13, 14.

Chalchihuitl engraved plates.

same stone with the objects already described, two inches and

eight-tenths in length by two inches and three-tenths broad

and two-tenths of an inch thick, engraved on both surfaces

and cut through with ornamental devices.

Fig. 15 is an engraving of one of a number of hat-shaped ob-

FiG. 15.

jects of the stone under notice, pierced through, so as to leave

a very thin rim and walls, and obviously designed to hold

those pe7iachos or clusters of feathers which the Spanish con-

querors so often describe, and which are so conspicuous in the

head ornaments represented on the monuments and in the abo-

riginal paintings of Mexico, Central America, and Peru.

They are each two inches and two-tenths in diameter over the

rim, one inch and one-tenth high, with a bore of eight-tenths

of an inch in diameter.

The relics above described are fair types of the chalchihuitls

found at Ocosingo ; but I possess some other worked and en-

graved green stones, worth mentioning, perhaps, in this con-

nection. The first of these,


Fig. 16, has some resemblance to the engraved Assyrian

seals, or, as they are sometimes called, " Chaldean " cylinders.

It is a perforated cylindrical piece of heavy, opaque stone, of

a dark sea-green color (nephrite ?), two inches long by an inch

and one-tenth in diameter. In a kind of oval, or vs^hat Egyptian

scholars would call a cartouohe, is presented the profile of some

Fig. 16.

Engraved etone cylinder from Yucatan.

divinity (the Maya god of Death ?), with the eye closed and

the tongue depending from the corner of the mouth. Some-

thing like claws, engraved on a projection of the cylinder,

start out from the ca/rtouche on the left side. The whole is

boldly and sharply cut, and highly polished. This relic was

obtained from the island of Flores, the ancient Tayasal, in the

lake of Itza or Peten, in Yucatan. Among the things found

by the conqueror of the Itzaes, Ursua, in the temples which he

destroyed in the island in 1697, he mentions " an idol of eme-

rald a span long, which," says the chronicler, " he appropriated

to himself."

It may be observed of the figure engraved on this stone, that

to speak, among American nations, was the verbal as well as

symbolical expression of life or being, as is ^ see or to hreathe^

or to eat, among other nations in various parts of the world.

The projecting tongue in the sculptured and painted American

idols and figures denotes the living god or man ; he who can


talk, and therefore lives. In this instance, the lax and droop-

ing tongue heightens the idea of death which the closed eje in

part conveys.

Fig. it is an engraving of a stone hatchet or adze of hard

green stone, resembling quartz, five inches long. It is highly-

polished on the face, but the reverse has marks which show

that it too was sawn from a block of the same material.

Fig. it.

Hatchet of green stone from Costa Eiea.

"Where the notches occur in the sides there are holes drilled

entirely through the stone, parallel with its face. The lower

or cutting edge is slightly curved outward, implying that, if

intended for practical service, it was as an adze. But it is to be

presumed that it was worn symbolically, in the way of distinc-

tion or ornament. It was found in an ancient grave in Costa

Rica. The ruling Inca of Peru carried an axe instead of a

sceptre as one of his insignia of dominion.*

* In Greece stone weapons of jade or nephrite are sometimes found, which the

common people call "thunderbolts," and hold in high estimation. A correspon-

dent of the London Athenceum found a similar object, called by the same name, in

Nassau, New Providence, in the Bahamas. He describes it as polished and flat-

tened, pointed at one end, with a broad cutting edge at the other, and regarded by

the natives as a preventive against lightning. Another correspondent of the


Fig. 18 (full size of original) is the easily recognizable figure

of a frog, in a kind of malachite, from the island of Omotepec,

Lake Nicaragua.

Fig. 18.

Sculptured frog, Nicaragua.

Fig. 19 is of still another and harder variety of green stone,

from a mound near Natchez, and appears to be a strange com-

bination of the head of the siren of our western waters, or of

Fig. 19.

Carved green stone found near Natchez.

the frog, with the liuman body. It is also pierced laterally,

like those already described, doubtless for suspension.

I do not present Fios. 10, 17, 18, and 19 as specimens of the

chalchi/'Hitl, but as showing the regard paid to green stones

generally. It is one that pervades both continents and many

same publicatioa states that ho found a similar object in Jamaica forty years ago,

also called a tiiundcrbolt. It was kept in an earthou jar tilled with water, and

was supposed to keep the water cool.


nations, from the advanced Chinese, to whom the green jade is

sacred, to the savage dwellers on the banks of the Orinoco,

among whom Humboldt found cylinders of hard green stones,

the most highly prized objects of the several tribes, and some

of which it must have required a lifetime to work into shape.

Of the carved chalchihuitls, like those described from Fig. 1

to Fig. 15, I have seen but three specimens outside of my own

collection : one already alluded to in the Christy Museum of

London, another in the late Uhde Museum near Heidelberg,

and a third in the Waldeck collection in Paris.

The question how these obdurate stones were engraved,

drilled, and sawn apart, or from the blocks of which they once

formed a portion, is one likely to arise in most minds. It is

one that has puzzled many inquirers ; nor do I pretend to give

an answer, except that the drilling was probably performed by

a vibratory drill, composed of a thin shaft of cane or bamboo, the

silica of which was re-enforced by very fine sand, or the dust of

the very article under treatment. The strice shown in the ori-

fices are proof of something of the kind, and the esteem at-

tached to these stones by the aborigines proves that their value,

like that of the main-spring of a watch, was due mainly to the

amount of labor expended in their production.

As regards the sawing, of which the backs of Figs. 4, 5, and 17

afford striking examples, we may find a clue in the accounts of

the early chroniclers, who relate that they saw, in Santo Do-

mingo and elsewhere, the natives use a thread of the cdbuya

(or agave), with a little sand, not only in cutting stone, but

iron itself. The thread was held in both hands, and drawn

right and left until worn out by attrition, and then changed for

a new one, fine sand and water being constantly supplied.

Not a few inquirers entertain the hypothesis that most of

the raised and sunken figures on various stones in Mexico,

Central America, and the mounds of the United States, were

produced by persistent rubbing or abrasion—a general hypothe-

sis which I shall not dispute. But in objects from the mounds,

22 Chalchihuitls from Central America.

as well as from other points on the continent, we have distinct

evidence of the use of graving or incisive tools of some kind

—

as for instance in the hieroglyphics in Fig. 7, which are cut in

a stone so hard that the blade of a knife produces scarcely any

impression on its polished suiface.

Observations on the chalchihuitl of Mexico and Central America

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Transcript of Observations on the chalchihuitl of Mexico and Central America